President Trump blamed Democratic lawmakers for a government shutdown Saturday, accusing them of “holding our Military hostage” over their demand that a short-term spending bill include protection for illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.
“Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration,” he tweeted. “Can’t let that happen!”
Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Can’t let that happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018
Earlier in the day, he blasted Democrats for playing ‘Shutdown politics’ instead of working to make a deal with their counterparts across the aisle.- READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]White House officials insisted there will be no negotiations on including DACA amnesty into the government funding resolution despite Senate Democrats’ shutdown of the government on Saturday.
“We will not negotiate over the status of people here unlawfully while Democrats shut down the government of the millions who are here lawfully,” a White House aide told Breitbart News on Saturday.
White House director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney confirmed the sentiment in a briefing with reporters at the White House.
Short said that while they were open to further discussions on a DACA deal, they did not want a deal attached to the continuing resolution to fund the government.
“[W]e’re not going to be held hostage and let our troops be held hostage over this,” he said. “When they reopen the government, we will continue the discussions.”
Short said that Trump’s success in his first year as president was partially what prompted Democrats to shut down the government, accusing them of trying to impress leftist activists. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]White House director of legislative affairs Marc Short took Democratic lawmakers to task Saturday for shutting the government down on Friday.
“Senate Democrats are basically conducting a two-year-old temper tantrum in front of the American people,” an exasperated Short declared. Senate Democrats blocked the passage of a continuing resolution late Friday which would have kept the government funded for another month, ostensibly in a bid to preserve Obama-era protections for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Short however said defiantly that any negotiations over the future of the DACA program would have to continue only after Democratic lawmakers relent and the government is fully funded. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a new measure on funding the government for just a three-week period, which Short said was the only concession the White House is giving on the negotiation. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]Former Democratic pollster for President Jimmy Carter, Pat Caddell, said Friday the Democrats have “lost control of their base” in the shutdown fight over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Caddell believes the Democrats will damage themselves politically by shutting down the government over DACA while neglecting border security and supporting “sanctuary cities.”
“Yes, DACA itself is very popular, but so are the positions that Trump has laid out that also need to be part of any deal,” Caddell said. “Those are also popular. Sanctuary cities are not popular. Simply amnesty by itself is not popular. Most of all, protecting the border is popular, whether people like the idea of a wall or not.”
“Democrats certainly understood in December that this was not a good idea to shut the government down over DACA,” Caddell lamented, saying that now it appears “they’ve lost control of their base.” – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), speaking from the House floor Saturday morning, called the government shutdown a “shakedown strategy” that Senate Democrats were talked into by their base.
Ryan noted the House on Thursday passed a short-term spending bill that would keep the government running for several more weeks while Congress worked on a full-year spending bill and immigration reform. It also contained a six-year extension of a low-income children’s health program the Democrats wanted and delay of health care taxes.
But when the bill was taken up by the Senate on Friday night, Senate Democrats blocked it. Senate Democrats have refused to pass a spending bill or short-term measure unless it contained a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which President Trump rescinded and gave Congress until March 5 to fix.
“Here is the simple truth: Senate Democrats refuse to fund this government unless we agree to their demands on something entirely unrelated,” Ryan declared. “They want to deal on immigration and then they’ll think about reopening the government.”
“It is a shakedown strategy that Senate Democrats have been talked into by their base,” he said. – READ MORE
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